Date: 17 Feb 94 18:48:56 EST
Subject: AIDS Lawsuits
From: anon@queernet.org (Anonymous Sender)
DELTA EMPLOYEES ECHO LATEST LAWSUIT'S CLAIMS MILWAUKEE, Feb. 16
/PRNewswire/ -- The following is being released by 9to5, National Association
of Working Women: 9to5, National Association of Working Women has been
hearing stories of intimidation and discrimination from Delta employees for
years. So news of a former Delta worker's suit against the airline claiming
he was targeted, harassed and fired for having the AIDS virus came as no
surprise.
According to the lawsuit filed in San Mateo County Superior Court in
California by Joseph A. Sullivan, Delta kept lists of employees suspected of
having the AIDS virus. Sullivan claims Delta harassed and fired him in 1991
because he has AIDS. His case goes to trial next month.
The calls coming in to 9to5's Job Problem Hotline -- 1-800-522-0925 -- from
Delta employees relate similar stories of discrimination by airline
management. These callers eventually formed a network to share information
and provide support to other Delta employees, both former and current.
"This happened to me four years ago," says Patty Garcia, a 9to5/Delta
Employees Network member. "And no one believed it was going on. Delta found
out that I had a terminal illness and, instead of supporting me and giving me
the disability that I was due, they pushed me out of my job, harassing me
every step of the way. Until I linked up with other Delta employees through
9to5, I had no idea how widespread the problems were."
Garcia, a single parent, was forced to go on welfare after losing her
$35,000-a-year Delta job. She is still unemployed.
Former Delta worker Gary Mathews says he was injured on the job. Following
the injury, Mathews claims he was subjected to harassment and ultimately
fired after 19 years of service. When he sued Delta for benefits he had
earned, Delta reportedly conducted an all-out investigation into Mathews'
private life.
"I'm not surprised to hear that Delta has a gay hit list," says Mathews. "I
suspected from the very beginning of my problems that Delta was out to get
me. They did everything possible to prevent me from getting medical benefits
or compensation.
"It's just one more example of their corporate red-neck mentality." Kelly
Fagan says she was fired from her job as a customer service agent in Fresno,
Calif., last fall for excessive absenteeism even though several co-workers
had missed more days than she had. "Since forming the network, we're finding
that these seemingly isolated incidents are more like a standard practice and
way of doing business at Delta," she says.
Although Sullivan's case is currently receiving national attention, 9to5
officials see it as only the tip of the iceberg.
"Respecting the rights and on-the-job safety of employees must be a priority
for major corporations like Delta," says Ellen Bravo, executive director of
9to5. "Likewise, employers must deal responsibly with those on disability or
with terminal illnesses.
AIDS Activists Protest Corporate Dispute They Say Delays Vaccine Research By
Huntly Collins, Philadelphia Inquirer
Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News
PHILADELPHIA--Feb. 16--AIDS activists in Philadelphia on Tuesday condemned
the corporate wrangling that, they say, is holding up further testing of the
AIDS vaccine developed by Jonas Salk.
The activists, speaking on behalf of about 200 HIV-infected people nationwide
who have taken part in preliminary tests of the vaccine, said the corporate
dispute threatens to delay further the administering of booster shots
promised to trial participants more than two years ago.
By the time the dispute is resolved, many of those who took part in the
trials may be dead, the activists warned.
"It is irresponsible, even reprehensible, that again the lives of men, women
and children living with this terrible disease are being neglected and made
secondary to corporate greed," said a statement issued by ACT-
UP/Philadelphia.
The statement followed Monday's announcment that Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc. of
Collegeville and Immune Response Corp. of Carlsbad, Calif., the companies
collaborating on the AIDS vaccine, had asked an independent arbitrator to
resolve a management dispute.
The dispute, which centers on each company's role in the vaccine- development
process, comes just as the vaccine is poised, pending federal drug
regulators' approval, for large-scale testing among more than 1,000 HIV-
infected people.
The product, which is made with the core protein of HIV, was developed by
Salk, who developed the first successful polio vaccine in the 1950s.
Preliminary tests have shown that it is safe and triggers the body's immune
system to fight infection.
Spokesmen for Rhone-Poulenc and Immune Response said Tuesday that the
arbitration, which will take months to complete, will not slow their drive to
get the large-scale tests approved by the federal Food and Drug
Administration.
They also said they were holding to their promise to make booster shots
available to former trial participants as soon as the FDA gives its approval.
"We have said before publicly that getting booster shots continues to be a
priority," Rhone-Poulenc spokesman Robert Pearson said.
But activists said many of the more than four dozen people in the
Philadelphia area who took part in the preliminary trials have already waited
too long for boosters.
And the activists voiced doubts that the FDA will approve further testing of
the vaccine before the two companies work out their differences.
"It will mean at least a one-year delay," said Kiyoshi Kuromiya, editor of
Critical Path, an AIDS-treatment newsletter based in Philadelphia.
Judy Rappaport, a member of ACT-UP/Philadelphia, spent Tuesday morning on the
telephone with former trial participants "devastated" over the prospect of
not getting their boosters soon.
"I believe the project is in jeopardy of being delayed for years," said
Rappaport, who has been working with the trial participants and the two
companies for the past year.
"This is another example of broken promises and deceit. They are dealing with
human lives here, people they made a promise to. It's just deplorable.
Francis J. Stoffa Jr., director of the AIDS Task Force of Philadelphia, also
expressed outrage.
"These people (the trial participants) just feel violated," Stoffa said.
"What the companies have done is hang these people with AIDS out to dry."
One trial participant, who asked that his name not be printed, said he was
enrolled in the placebo arm of the preliminary trials. The 47-year-old gay
writer, a Center City resident, said he signed up for the trial only because
the companies promised that he would get the actual vaccine after the
preliminary trial was over.
He has been waiting more than 18 months. "I am healthy enough that I can last
a year or so," he said Tuesday. "But a lot of other people can't."
Although the preliminary tests show that Salk's AIDS vaccine can boost
antibodies and infecting-fighting white blood cells, it is not clear whether
it can halt, or even slow, the progression of HIV infection.
In December, the companies submitted 17 volumes of medical data to the FDA as
part of a bid to win approval for large-scale testing to determine the
vaccine's effectiveness. An FDA spokeswoman Tuesday declined to comment on
that application.